Protective armor systems typically incorporate multiple armor tiles, commonly ceramic tiles. In the case of body armor garments for personal use, armor tiles typically are supported within a fabric structure such as a vest as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,115 to Mazelsky.
In some instances an armor tile may be a large ceramic piece. In the case of a personal body armor garment, such a piece may be shaped to cover a critical body area for protection. The large ceramic tile has a deficiency in that when hit in one area, cracks are likely to propagate to beyond the initial impact area, perhaps crack the entire tile. When damaged the entire tile must be replaced which is costly and not practical in field situations.
In other instances, the tiles are relatively small and are in shapes such as squares, rectangles, triangles, rounds and other polygon shapes. Tiles of smaller polygon shapes can be secured together side-by-side by various methods and/or laminated in fabrics. But in many cases leave gaps straight through the garment between tiles or have other deficiencies. Various tile designs and methods of sealing gaps have been described in the past, but none that provides an optimal construction.
Other systems have employed numerous small tiles that overlap one another as opposed to being arranged in a common plane. But overlapping the full thickness of tiles adds a significant amount of weight. Further, because there are no edge restraints either vertically or horizontally on such overlapping arrangements, the tiles can be pushed off the horizontal plane perhaps as much as 90 degree when hit with a projectile, or from normal movement if not restrained, thereby creating an open space vulnerable to a second hit.
The present disclosure concerns tiles that easily can be constructed and that can be assembled edge-to-edge into armor structures that do not suffer from the problems of prior armor systems and armor tiles.